Taxi vs Uber in NYC by Haitian Times / Opinion

By Vania Andre / Haitian Times
Gregory Mellon is used to the taxi and livery industry. Since his mid-20s, he’s navigated the landscape, dealing with some of the common pitfalls that cab drivers go through in the competitive, and at times, harsh driving industry. Unscrupulous cab dispatchers are prevalent, often bartering calls for cuts of the driver’s earnings, he says, and favoritism is rampant. Pay schedules are regularly ignored and unprofessionalism is “common.” “There’s a culture of unprofessionalism that exists in the black car service industry,” the 29-year-old Brooklyn native says. Now he splits his time between his car service and driving for Uber. “Uber is reliable. They pay when they say they’re going to pay; if there’s an issue, they notify you and most importantly, it’s fair across the board…no favoritism. ” For decades, large fleet companies such as Taxi Club Management have been a leading employer for those looking to drive for extra cash. The holding corporation has several companies that specialize in the NYC cab industry with 850 yellow taxis and 3,000 drivers—many of them Haitian immigrants. In fact, Haiti is listed in the top 5 countries of birth of taxi drivers, according to the Taxicab Fact Book. However, with the introduction of Uber, a ride sharing service that allows passengers to schedule pickups through an app, money and drivers are shifting from the old taxi model to one Mellon describes as “revolutionary.” Uber is displacing the old taxi business, Dr. Francois Pierre-Louis, author of “Haitians in New York City: Transnationalism and Hometown Associations,” says. It’s breaking up the monopoly and changing the business model to make it even more profitable for the drivers. Uber is driven by demand, and the demand is high. Regular taxi drivers make about $1,500 a week, while Uber drivers make about $3000 without having to deal with the “tyranny of TLC.” In the 1970s and 1980s there was an overwhelming number of Haitian immigrants joining the industry and buying up taxi medallions. The taxi business is an “ethnically-driven” industry, where a lot of people use it as a transitional job, he says. “Often times, recent immigrants had careers in Haiti, but once they immigrate to the states, they have to redo their education here; a move that can take years to complete and is expensive, despite having gone through it before. The cab industry offers stable income........”

I am telling you man, I kicked on UBER tires and it is all GOOD, uber is good old company with upstanding record .......................NOT, they are bunch of high tech crooks, without any moral principles, they don't even tell their drivers, that they are operating against the law

Taxi services are being used for a lot of years. Till now these services are so ncecessary and people have to rely a lot on these services also. Some times I find the best and cheap town car service Garland as I am living here to save some extra bucks.